Running Away
by Ragna's Fangirl
Summary: A dying flame found her way to Resurgam, and suddenly began to shine. But everyone at Resurgam knows that it can't possibly be that simple. Is it something about her past? Or is there more to her than meets the eye?  OC story, may contain pairings.
1. Seven Years

_Spinning, laughing, dancing to _  
_her favorite song _  
_A little girl with nothing wrong _  
_Is all alone _

_Eyes wide open _  
_Always hoping for the sun _  
_And she'll sing her song to anyone _  
_that comes along _

_Fragile as a leaf in autumn _  
_Just fallin' to the ground _  
_Without a sound _

_Crooked little smile on her face _  
_Tells a tale of grace _  
_That's all her own _

_Spinning, laughing, dancing to her favorite song _  
_A little girl with nothing wrong _  
_And she's all alone..._

_ ~Norah Jones, Seven Years_

_

* * *

_

It was a fresh crisp morning that day. Winter was inching closer and closer to its end, as if it was slowly but surely being pushed by Spring. Butterflies and birds had yet to migrate; not even the snow had shown signs of melting. Yet, it had gotten warmer, if only by a slim margin, felt by everyone. There was a sense of joy all around, which was also felt - and shared - by everyone. Everyone seemed to know that the city - for this moment - was at peace.

The FBI building - even if it's employees were hard at work going over the old and new crimes - seemed to be peaceful, at least from the outside. The young FBI agent seemed to agree with the atmosphere. His hair was a bright tan - not quite blonde, but too bright to be considered brown. His attire was a fancy purple suit and slacks. Actually, everything he was wearing was purple, separated only by different shades. Even his long tie was purple. Overall, he was charming and handsome - perfect, even - except for one small flaw. Right under each bright blue eye was some kind of line, giving him a tired appearance, even when he was looking at you normally. Although, when you're an FBI agent, who could blame you?

As he walked down the sidewalk in full stride, the agent reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a keycard. Needless to say, the FBI buildings had very high security so that complete strangers would be unable to waltz right in. Not only was a keycard necessary, but quite a few codes needed to be inputted as well.

The agent stood before the gate and was about to swipe his card down the reader, when he stopped. He felt an odd feeling like he was being watched. Why would that be? Just to be safe, the agent looked around. He didn't see anyone, but the feeling of eyes on him remained. The feeling was eerie, and the agent, not exactly known for being paranoid, decided it would be safe to take a thorough look around.

It was fairy early in the morning, and the bright, golden sun was just beginning to perch over the houses and apartment complexes in the distance. In front of him was a paved road, but it hadn't received a fresh paving in awhile, and the road had faded to brighter gray than it should be. However, there were no potholes, just a few cracks from winters before, and the lane lines were intact. On the other side of the road were a few houses and a lot of snow-covered lawn. The agent eyed a snowman in front of one of the houses.

Since it was morning, cars were driving by, but not a lot. The agent guessed that 1 or 2 cars passed every 30 seconds, but it was just an estimate. It's not like he had time to calculate it. Although he apparently had time to look for whatever may or may not be looking at him. The feeling of being watched was getting even more ominous.

The agent took a deep breath and remembered that he was employed to the FBI, and he had no time to waste on trivial things like this. Ignoring the continuing feeling, the agent shoved his keycard into the reader and began to input the codes, which he had memorized months before to the point where it seemed like second nature. After inputting the last code, an LED panel attached to the keypad flashed a green '**Access Granted**'. The agent put a firm grip on the door's handle and looked behind him one final time. With a push, the door opened with ease. The agent took a single step forward.

"**Boo**."

The agent stumbled and whipped around, resisting the urge to yelp, but an "**ACK**" escaped his lips nonetheless. He almost drew his gun until he realized who had said 'boo'.

She was a small girl, short and painfully skinny. She was wearing a short-sleeved tunic-type thing that looked like it was cut from a potato sack or a different type of fabric. It was a little too big for her and it was incredibly dirty. Actually, everything the girl had seemed to be dirty and smudged, from her barefoot feet to a smudge on her forehead. Her clothes were lacerated in some spots and had dirt marks and stains flecking it like a smeared Jackson Pollock painting. The small, brown bag she had slung over her shoulder was no better, and it looked like it would fall apart at any moment. It looked like patches had been sewn onto it at some point in time as well, meaning it had already fallen apart before. She must've had that bag for awhile. It looked like a thick... stick-like thing was sticking out of the top, but the agent couldn't identify what it was.

The agent looked at the child's face and instantly realized something off balance - her hair. It was bright tan, only slightly lighter than his own hair color. But it wasn't like his hair at all. Her hair was long. So long, in fact, that it seemed to flow down both sides of her like a veil. It almost touched the sidewalk she was standing on. It was just so perfect, her hair. Parted right down the center, balanced evenly, and - unlike the rest of her - nearly spotless.

Finally, the eyes of the agent fell on the girl's face. Her eyes were... greenish, he thought. They were dull and had seemed to turn gray. There was a hint of green in her dull eyes, like an emerald flame in a cavern of ice. The rest of her face was just as dull. She had no innocent look to her as a child should. Yet, she wasn't looking at him with contempt, anger, or sadness. She was just... staring at him. Her dulled eyes were looking him over just as he was.

The agent's breathing steadied after she said 'boo', finally. He convinced himself that the child was no threat, but he didn't know what to say next. The girl's eyebrows raised slightly, as if she didn't know what to say either. A stony, yet awkward, silence fell between them. Tension swam around them, making the air thick enough to cut with a knife. Neither knew what to say or do.

Finally, the silence was broken.

"Did I scare you?" The girl said, her stare just as blank. Her voice was high pitched and angelic, yet it almost seemed too perfect. Like it was training itself for this one moment to say that one line.

"Uhm... uh..." The agent hesitated. In all honesty, it was a surprise that made him jump, but he wasn't about to admit that. "Nice try, but I work for the FBI. I'm not scared that easily."

_Oh the irony... _the agent groaned in his thoughts.

"I... see." Her gaze never changed, but her blunt tone seemed to indicate that she didn't believe him. She seemed to play along, though. "Are all of the people in the FBI tough?" The way she said 'FBI', it sounded more like 'Eh-Vee-Eye', but the agent tried not to call attention to that.

"Well, of course." He said, not sure of what else he could've said. "That's what they're supposed to be, after all."

"Are they... friendly?" She asked. This question caught the agent off guard. While most of the agents seemed friendly enough, he really only talked to them when he needed them to analyze evidence, and those 'conversations' hardly let anyone know if people were friendly. _'hey, can you examine _' 'yeah, sure, I'll have that back as soon as possible.'_, was the typical 'conversation'.

"... Oh..." The girl mumbled. The agent realized he'd hesitated too long and gave the wrong impression to the girl. The agent's face flushed with embarrassment for a moment before he knelt down and smiled awkwardly at the girl.

"N-no, not everyone's bad, you know! No wait..." The agent made a mental note to word sentences better and tried again. "I mean, everyone is nice an all! I mean, it's not like we have lunch together like buddies or something, but we're not screaming at each other either."

The girl looked away and then looked back at him, meeting his gaze. "Are you friendly?" She asked. The agent smirked smugly.

"I dunno. What do you think?" He replied. The girl stared at him with her blank gaze for a moment longer before her lips curved into a slight smile.

"You're funny, Mister FBI man... and you're nice."

The agent took this as a chance to show off, as weird as it sounds. He stood up, ran a hand through his hand and adjusted his tie, all while smiling smugly.

"Please, call me... Agent Navel."

Although, Agent Navel got the opposite reaction he'd hoped for, because instead of the girl's eyes filling with awe like he'd planned, she started giggling at him like he told a joke. Or maybe, to her, he **was** the joke.

"You're so funny, Agent Navel..." She giggled. Her giggling died off fast and she quickly regained her composure. She looked down at her feet as if she was thinking of another question. This gave Agent Navel a free moment to realize just how much time he'd wasted talking to this girl, and how late he was right now.

"Uh... woah! I gotta run!" He said, trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible. To take even more precautions, he suddenly made a dash for the door, leaving the girl standing in his dust.

"Wait." She said. Navel paused briefly and looked back at her. She was back to looking at him blankly, but she suddenly curved her eyebrows as if she was concerned. "You work for the FBI... and you catch bad people?"

"Y-yes." Navel answered quickly.

"... Do you trust me? Or do you think I'm bad...?" She suddenly spoke.

Once again, Navel was caught off guard. How should he go about answering that? He had no idea, but his mind was yelling at him to get to work before he got yelled at by a certain white haired woman for being late. Navel shook his head.

"I don't know, what do you think?" Again, answering quickly, Navel dashed into the door as it slammed shut behind him, leaving the girl all alone. The girl watched the door for a moment longer, hoping he'd come back. Maybe with a different answer. Or maybe just so she could see him smile again. But he didn't come. The girl sighed and trudged down the sidewalk slowly with her head hung down.

* * *

Navel thrashed into his office and almost tackled his chair. He quickly put on the Voice-chat headset and turned it on, only to find that Naomi Kimishima had already been trying to contact him for 3 minutes. Great.

"Ah, Good morning, Dr. Kimishima!" He greeted, still panting heavily. "Sorry abo-"

"I've been trying to reach you for 3 minutes. Where have you been?" A stony voice interrupted him in mid sentence. The voice obviously belonged to Naomi Kimishima, who was arguable harder than nails. She spoke to him like a mother scolding her son, which didn't please Navel, but he was in no position to fight back about that.

"U-uh... I-it's not important, doctor." Navel stammered, trying to just play it off.

"Ugh, whatever." Naomi scoffed. "What're the cases today, Little Guy?"

"Uh... cases... oh right!" Navel said out loud. He began sorting through a stack of manila envelopes and random other papers that were scattered around his desk.

"You really forgot about the cases?" Naomi accused. "You seem out of it, Little Guy. Are you feeling alright?" She asked if he was okay, but that more-or-less meant 'you better be okay or I'll scold you', or something to that effect.

"No, really, I'm fine, It was just... so much to do, so little time, ya know? eheh..." Navel paused and smacked his forehead with his palm. That was a bad response. He thought he heard Naomi chuckle on the other end.

"So the pressure is getting to you now, Little Guy?" Naomi said. Navel's face turned red as he desperately looked for a way to change the subject. Luckily, he found today's case file.

"Ah, perfect!" Navel said out loud. "Uh, I mean, I found the case file, Dr. Kimishima. Want me to read it?"

"Please do, if it isn't too much for you to handle."

"D... doctor..." Navel moaned. He sighed and opened the envelope. "Okay, the victim is-"

Suddenly, a loud ringing pierced the air around Navel. Naomi heard it as well. Navel sighed yet again.

"Uh... phone!" Navel said out loud, as if it wasn't clear enough what was ringing. Navel removed the headset and held the phone to his ear. Naomi waited on the other end and tried to hear the conversation, but she only heard what Navel said:

"What's going on? I'm kinda busy here..."

**"... She did WHAT!"**

* * *

[[AUTHORS NOTE: I've never played Trauma Center, and I've only watched a walkthrough of it, which is good enough for me, lol. I'm trying my best to write this, so if you could point out any errors, that would be great, and I wouldn't be offended at all. Reviews are very much appreciated, of course! 8DDDD I hope you enjoyed this part!]]


	2. Time of Dying

[[Author's Note: Thank you BloodyRosalia and Indochine Ramera for the reviews! This next part was mapped out over the course of the day while I was at school, so hopefully it's good. :3

Couple of things: First, this chapter is really long. Brace yourself, lol. I hope it's good. X3

Secondly, I wrote half of this in the morning, some of it the next day, and the rest of it today, so I'm sorry if it seems... scattered or something.

Also, does anyone like the song clips at the beginning? I might stop them later. :)]]

* * *

_On the ground I lay_  
_ Motionless in pain_  
_ I can see my life flashing before my eyes_  
_ Did I fall asleep?_  
_ Is this all a dream_?  
_ Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare_

_ I will not die (I will not die)_  
_ I will survive_

_ I will not die, I'll wait here for you_  
_ I feel alive, when you're beside me_  
_ I will not die, I'll wait here for you_  
_ In my time of dying_

_~Three Days Grace, Time of Dying  
_

_

* * *

_

"Little Guy, is something wrong?" Naomi's voice called in the headset. She sounded calm, with only a hint of concern.

"Ah... uhm..." Navel hesitated, then ultimately disregarded Naomi and resumed the phone call. "Sorry, I'll see. I can't guarantee anything, though... okay, goodbye." Navel hung up and put the headset back on, accidentally breathing into the microphone, causing a muffled static noise to fire into Naomi's ear like little needles. Navel's eyes widened and sighed in relief (not directly in the mic, thankfully) knowing that he could only see Naomi's avatar on the screen, and not Naomi herself. He suspected she would be glaring at him while rubbing her ear. Navel tried not to picture that... and ultimately failed.

_Dang, even imagining Naomi's glare send shivers up my spine... _Navel groaned in his thoughts.

"Little guy!" Naomi sort-of shouted at him, but she still maintained her calm demeanor.

"O-oh," Navel stammered. "S-sorry, Dr. Kimishima. What did you say?"

"You heard me." Naomi said quickly but coldly. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Ah... Y-yes... it seems that a suicide was reported by the lake." Navel murmured in a low tone of voice.

"Suicide? At the lake?" Naomi inquired. "Was it a successful attempt?"

"I don't know. The paramedics just started fishing the body out of the lake. We'll have to wait."

An awkward silence filled the room. Navel bit his lip and sorted through some papers on his desk while he waited for Naomi to say something, or he thought of something else to say to her.

"... Well?" Naomi suddenly spoke, startling Navel just a little. "Are we going to go or not?"

"Huh?" Navel grunted. He stopped sorting papers and looked back up at Naomi's avatar on the screen in the same way that Doctor Cunningham looks at RONI when it just spouts a bunch of tech-nonsense. "What do you mean?"

"You should clean out your ears sometime, Little Guy." Naomi teased. "Are we going down to the lake to investigate... or are you not up to the task of walking either? 'So much to do, so little time'?" Naomi mimicked. Navel's cheeks began to feel warm.

"D-Doctor... I-I'm fine. But are you sure you want to go? And you want me to come along?" Navel stammered, scratching the back of his neck with slight embarrassment.

"My, Little Guy, you certainly are out of it today." Naomi sighed. "Never-the-less, yes, of course we should go investigate! And yes, it would be appropriate for you to accompany me." There was a brief pause. "I have some questions I'd like to ask you, anyway."

"Uh... questions? For me?" Navel's eyes widened and his cheeks felt hot. Naomi never asked him questions personality; It was always done digitally. Even if she would ask him questions face to face, they were always about the case, like 'which file has the voice recording on it?', or something to that effect. Heck, maybe the questions she wanted to ask were about the case... no, that's impossible. Neither knew about the suicide, and he hadn't even introduced the other cases. These questions had to be personal. That's the only thing that made sense.

Navel felt a bit too proud over those deductions. He shook his head.

"I see. Alright, I'll be right out, then." Navel removed the headset and threw it back on the chair, no doubt causing another unpleasant sound to shoot through Naomi's ears.

Naval ran past his door, but abruptly stopped - almost causing him to topple over - and backed up, looking into a mirror he had in his office. _My god, I'm a mess!_ Navel thought, and he wasn't joking. His purple suit was completely off center, with one collar riding up his neck and the other slipping down his shoulder. The sleeves of the suit were wrinkled, and the off-balance of the suit made his left sleeve look too short and the right too long. His tie looked like it had been thrown over his shoulder, like someone had grabbed it and choked him with it. However, even worse than all that, was his hair. It was so spastic that it looked like it was in the process of having an epileptic seizure. His bangs had apparently just finished their seizure and were pressed against his face at an obscure angle, like it had flopped onto its side and died. It seemed that his appearance reflected this morning's rush, but Naval still bit his lip in annoyance at his appearance. It was like he was looking at a completely different person, like a homeless guy who found a suit in a dumpster.

Naval, obviously, couldn't meet Naomi face-to-face like this. He scrambled to his desk and grabbed a comb out of one of the drawers, which he kept around for moments just like this. Shoving the comb in his mouth, Naval wriggled out of his suit like a worm flopping out of the soil and hung it on a peg near the entrance. Removing the comb from his teeth, he tried to comb his hair into something that resembled a hairstyle while simultaneously smoothing out his suit with his other hand. He recalled the saying 'Would you rather do something fast or do it well?', in which 'doing something well' always seemed like the right answer. However, in this case, doing two things mediocre to save time seemed to be a much greater concern than doing two things well and wasting time. After all, he had already ticked off Naomi by showing up three minutes late, and he wasn't intending to have a repeat of that.

A couple minutes later, Naval squirmed back into his suit and straightened his tie so much that it resembled a blue sword blade more than a tie, which pleased him. Looking back in the mirror, Naval crossed his arms and frowned just a little. His hair still looked like something a cat had coughed up, but he didn't have time to fix it.

He shrugged. _That'll have to do, _he thought. With that, he made a dash to the door (careful not to mess up his suit again or give his hair another seizure) and slammed it behind him. It was only a matter of minutes before he was out the front door and was in the parking lot. Only to find...

... Naomi was just arriving as well. She was walking close to the side of the building in her usual attire towards him. Her blue-tinted silver hair gleamed in the morning sun, which had only risen slightly from when Navel had been out here before. Navel sighed heavily. _Geez, why did I even bother rushing? _He thought.

"Agent, we've wasted enough time as it is. Let's go." Naomi urged, already starting to walk in the direction of his parked car when just a moment ago she was heading towards him. Navel's eyes widened a bit and he walked quickly to keep up. He jogged until he was by Naomi's side, where he matched his speed with her pace. The two walked in silence for a bit, giving Navel enough time to shudder at the phone call he received. Would he make it there in time? According to his watch, it had been only 3 minutes since the phone call, but that was a long time by medical standards. Is it possible... that she...?

"Little Guy." Naomi spooked him with a firm voice. Navel whipped his head towards Naomi, who was looking at him rather strangely.

"Yes, Doctor?" He replied.

"Something's not right with you. You've been nervous and jumpy since that phone call. Plus, you were late to work. If something is the matter, I insist that you tell me. You might be ill."

"N-nervous? Jumpy?" Navel stammered. He scratched the back of his neck nervously and glanced at his hand. His fingers were straight as an arrow. Naomi was right - he was all tensed up. Why was he so jumpy all of a sudden? This wasn't exactly healthy for an FBI agent. First the girl, then Naomi, now Naomi again. What had caused this? Was he sick? No, he didn't feel ill at all.

"Dr. Kimishima, I'm fine, really." Navel smiled nervously, but his face straightened as they continued walking. Naomi was just staring at him like he had just grown a third ear, and he could feel the heat of her gaze.

Navel unlocked the doors and the two hopped into Navel's black Mercedes. Yes, it was a black Mercedes. He'd found it at a car dealership and thought he looked really awesome driving it. Although, since he was in the FBI, he made sure he replaced the windows with bullet-proof glass and reinforced the doors, but that didn't take away from how awesome the car was.

The car was also fast, and should take them to the lake in a matter of seconds. Perfect.

"There's something I've been wanting to ask you." Naomi began, her calm disposition surrounding her words, as always. "When you answered the call, you reacted strangely."

Navel glanced over to Naomi, trying to focus on the road and her at the same time, which wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

"You said... 'she did what?'." Naomi reminded him, saying the line in the same tone of voice he had said it in, but not nearly as loud.

"Y-yes, Doctor Kimishima, I did say that. Are you implying something?" Navel gulped. Naomi had always been good at finding the truth. Why'd he even bother trying to hide anything from her? He sighed.

_W-well... I-I'm not trying to hide it! _Navel stammered on in his thoughts. _I-It's just... not important! _Navel felt color coming to his cheeks, mostly likely from embarrassment.

"Do you know the victim, Little Guy?" Naomi asked bluntly, cutting right to the chase as she usually did.

"N-No!" Navel answered far too quickly for it to not be suspicious. "I-I mean, not personally, I..."

Navel was saved from having to continue when he slammed on the brakes at the lakefront. Okay, it wasn't the lakefront, more like the lake-side parking lot, but it was as close as a car could get. Navel bounded out of the car and ran towards the waterfront, where a group of paramedics dressed in green and gold were already there, along with an ambulance. Navel had nearly forgotten Naomi was with him, and looked back to see her standing about 5 feet away from him.

Navel - against better judgment - walked up to the paramedics who apparently weren't doing much.

"What's going on? What happened here? What's the situation?" Navel spouted, asking more questions at a time than he should have. Before the paramedic could answer, a shout broke through the area.

"DAMMIT!" Came a shout from the center of the paramedic group. The rest of the paramedics flinched a bit. "You lazy asses! Move your butts! Johnny, get more gel! All of you just make yourselves useful for once!"

The paramedics darted off, getting more supplies or whatever they thought 'make yourselves useful would involve', giving Navel a chance to see what was going on. He gulped in some air and moved a little bit closer.

A lone paramedic was kneeling over the victim. Her dark face was warped from rage and stress, and her chocolate-brown hair was messy, but not as messy as his own hair had been earlier. She had just finished putting some temporary bandages on the side of the victim's head, and was now putting her hand over her fist and slamming it down on the girl's chest.

The paramedic briefly glanced up. "Eh! ? What do you want? ! Get outta here, I'm busy!"

Navel didn't hear her words. He was staring at the victim with horror in his ice. His bit his lip and his fist clenched.

Over the phone, the paramedic who had called described the victim, and since then, he'd known it was her but couldn't admit it. It had to be someone else! It had to be...

Well, now his denial was shattered into pieces that were too small for the ants to eat. Long hair, smooth as silk, now wet and messy on the dirty ground. Actually, everything about the girl was messy and wet, from her barefoot feet to the smear on her forehead. Her potato-sack tunic was soaked and the smudges were smeared and warped like a Jackson Pollock painting going through the washing machine. There was no doubt... it really was her.

Navel's eyes wandered to the girl's face. It was angelic, emotionless, yet peaceful, with her eyes closed delicately. She must've been happy to die...

"HEY! are you listening to me? !" The paramedic - still on her knees - whipped her body around and shoved a fist right into Navel's gut.

"GUH!" Naval grunted and had to slide his foot behind him a bit to keep his balance, but he recovered quickly. He looked back at the paramedic. "Sorry! What's going on?" He asked.

"What's **going on**? !" The enraged paramedic fumed, glaring at Navel with all the ferocity of a Serial Killer tiger, if such a thing ever existed. "Gee, I dunno!" She reached over to her side and held up a rope with a loop at one end and a big rock tied to the other. "How about some little 10-year-old threw herself into the lake with a rock tied to her ankle so she wouldn't float back up ? ! And how about that she bashed her head on the rocks at the bottom and got a big-ass gash on the side of her head ? ! And how about the fact that she's gulped a lung-full of water and she hasn't coughed up any! How about that ? !"

Navel went very quiet. His mouth opened but no words came out, as if he couldn't think of anything to say. The paramedic continued to slam her fists down on the girl, but it didn't seem to do any good, as she had said.

"She's breathing." Navel jumped at the sound of the sudden voice, and was startled out of his thoughts by Naomi, who was suddenly standing beside him. "She can still be saved." She added.

"I-" before Navel could say anything else, a long beep pierced the alir like a scream. Naomi's eyes widened and Navel whipped around to the paramedic, who seemed panicked.

"C-CARDIAC ARREST ! !" The paramedic screamed. "She's suffocating ! !"

"Your hands aren't enough! We need more force!" Navel shouted over the loud beep.

"I can't use the defibrillator! With all the water it'll kill her instantly!"

"I didn't say the defibrillator! I said more force!" As navel shouted the word 'force', he flung his leg forward and kicked the girl just beneath the ribcage.

"Are you NUTS ? !" The paramedic screeched, her eyes bugging out of her head. "You'll crush her ribs that way!"

"Would you rather have a few broken ribs or be DEAD?" Navel shouted, looking the paramedic right in the eye. "Please! Help me with this!"

The paramedic looked down at the victim. Her heart wasn't beating. There was no other - or better - choice.

"Dammit! Alright, hurry! One, two, three, NOW!"

Standing over the victim, the two's feet rocketed like a race horse when the starting gun fires. Their feet slammed right into the girl's stomach with as much force as they could.

There was a gurgle. Then the sickening crack of shattering ribs. Suddenly, there was a moan, and another sound... like liquid moving.

"**E-EUAAAAAAAGH ! ! !**" A bloodcurdling shriek shot through the air as the little girl vomited an enormous about of water all over her clothes. Her breathing went from shallow intakes, warning of death, to desperate gasps for air. Her dull, green eyes opened for a moment before her head limply fell back onto the ground. Navel only saw it for a second... but he could've sworn she was looking at him.

The monotone beep had completely disappeared, leaving behind a loud ringing in the ears of those around - the only sound in the entire area. By this time, the other paramedics were on the scene, but even they were soundless, just staring.

Silence.

"She's... stable!" The paramedic gasped, breaking the silence. Suddenly, she whipped her head towards the other paramedics.

"How long have you all been here ? !" She exclaimed with slight surprise.

"J-just a minute or two, Miss Torres..." A male paramedic stammered.

"**WHAT ? !**" The paramedic, apparently called Miss Torres by the others, exploded, her face turning red from rage. "Why haven't you been doing anything ? ! She may be stable now, but we still have that gash to worry about! Chris, get her on a stretcher! You three load her into the ambulance! Everyone else clean up around here! You guys call yourselves paramedics ! ? HURRY UP!"

"Y-y-y-yes ma'am!" Not one of the paramedics protested with Miss Torres when she was shouting at them like this. Not one. They all dispersed frantically like wasps when their nest is knocked off a tree. The swarm loaded the victim and dived back into the ambulance. Miss Torres glanced back at Navel and Naomi, yet didn't waste any time manning the ambulance and speeding away. From the symbol on the ambulance, it seemed they were from Resurgam: First Care.

"It seems she'll survive." Naomi said. Navel didn't jump at her sudden talking this time. He felt himself relaxing, all the tensing leaving his body. Navel turned his head to Naomi, who wasn't looking at him.

"Yes, it seems that way. Should we get back to the office?" Navel asked. Naomi turned her head and looked at him, her blue eyes, like chips of sapphire, staring directly into his pale, blue eyes.

"I've never seen you leap into action like that." She suddenly said. Navel raised an eyebrow, his face turning slightly pink.

"Why do you say that?"

"You're an FBI agent, not a doctor. I would've expected you to get one of the paramedics near by instead of taking command yourself."

"W-well..." Navel scratched the back of his neck. "Doctor Kimishima, I **do** work for the FBI, and I **am** aware of the Heimlich Maneuver..."

"You know that isn't enough to convince me." Naomi reminded him. "You panicked when she went into Cardiac Arrest. Now that she's fine, you've returned to your normal self. You're not jumpy anymore."

Navel was surprised she noticed those things. She must've been watching him with those blue eyes of her. The thought of that made his cheeks turn crimson as a Coca-Cola can.

"This supports my initial theory." Naomi finished. "You know the victim. You were concerned for her safety. But I don't think she's related to you. I've never even seen her before."

Navel looked away, but Naomi walked towards him and grabbed his tie. Navel's face turned bright

"So, it seems I have a single question that requires an answer: _Why save her?_"


	3. Red Eyes

[[Author's Note: No song clip. I couldn't find one that fit this chapter. Also, thank you LittleGuyLover for the reviews! (go check out her stuff, it's flippin awesome. especially if you love Navel. LOL) Speaking of Mr. Bellybutton *shot* I mean Navel, I mean Little Guy, we'll get to him in the next chapter. ;) MUAHAHA!]]

* * *

"We hardly had any time for a conference. Do you remember the procedure?"

Resurgam seemed to just be waking up, and there was already an ambulance on the way, doomed to arrive within seconds. Maria had been busy with stabilizing the victim, and, as such, she had called about an emergency operation a bit late. While a suicide had been reported, no one had suspected a gash on the right temple, amongst other things. The surgeons barely had time to review the procedure, leaving the hulking orthopedic surgeon and the skinny, red-eyed prisoner waiting in the hallway outside the Operating Room for the patient to arrive. The young surgeon was standing straight and stiff near the green, sliding doors leading to the OR. In contrast, the tanned orthopedic surgeon was on a chair in the hallway.

"Ah... the procedure..." The prisoner paused for a second. Even he had problems remembering all the details. The conference was a bit rushed. "I'll make an incision at the lungs and drain any remaining water I find there."

"According to Maria, it took two people to get the diaphragm to react and push the water out of the lungs. Do you think it might be damaged?" The other surgeon inquired, turning his head towards the brown-haired teen in the unhooked straight-jacket.

"... That is irregular... but we'll have to wait for a diagnosis before trying to operate on that." He replied.

"Yeah, you're right. What about the temple?"

"I'm going to make the initial incision and repair any damaged tissue. There's a good possibility that the skull will be minorly fractured, so you'll have to walk me through the procedure."

"Ah, that won't be a problem." The orthopedic surgeon nodded.

"You're going to operate on the broken ribs, however."

"Yes, I remember Maria mentioning that. It seems we're good to go, eh?"

The emotionless surgeon remained quiet. He glanced towards the windows and the door.

"Hm?" The other surgeon looked as well. Suddenly, a high pitched noise began to flood into the building. It came in through the windows and deluged through the doors like water or slime. It was a distant sound... of an ambulance. It came closer and closer - louder and louder - until it stopped getting louder altogether.

"The patient has arrived." The red-eyed surgeon said with a serious tone. "Hurry and get ready."

At that, the two surgeons leaped into action, putting on their gloves and moving all the tools and fluids into easy-to-get places. The orthopedic surgeon checked all the tools to make sure they were at their best.

The instant they were finished, the green doors burst open, and and unmistakable voice began shouting.

"Alright! Hank! Kid! You guys better be ready in here!" It was Maria, a paramedic. Behind her, was a stretcher with the patient on it, being pushed by three paramedics. Maria sounded a little mad, which was both normal and strange.

"Yes, we're ready." The red-eyed surgeon said first. "Set the patient on the table. We'll begin the operation immediately."

* * *

"Scalpel."

The red eyed prisoner made the first incision near the lungs. Hank, who was at his side assisting, prepared to drain so it was read when he asked for it.

"Ah... This doesn't look good." The red-eyed surgeon suddenly murmured.

"What doesn't look-" Maria looked at the operating field. The lung was bruised and hemorrhaged at the bottom near the diaphragm.

"I see..." The prisoner murmured to himself, but in such a way that everyone heard him. "The diaphragm was reacting when you were trying to perform the Heimlich Maneuver, but that wasn't the problem. There was too much water and too much weight, so it could force the water out until you used an enormous amount of force."

"So the lungs was hemorrhaged and bruised because of that ? !" Maria shouted, shock and anger on her face. "GAH! DAMN THAT AGENT!"

The prisoner ignored Maria's suspicious remark and proceeded to talk. "We can't treat the bruises, but those will heal on their own. We need to treat the hemorrhaging right now before they cause her to lose too much air. Sutures."

"Right here!" Hank handed him the needle and threads. The 'kid', as Maria had called him earlier, stitched the lacerations easily.

"Drain." He called next, which was quickly handed to him. "There's blood here... although it looks lighter in color than normal. It must be mixed with all the water from her lungs."

A click and quiet sucking-sound - kind of like someone drinking a milkshake through a straw - was heard as the surgeon turned on the drain and vacuumed up the blood and water that was on the outside of the lung.

"It's too risky cutting the lung open and draining any remaining water. We'll drain her air too quickly." Hank said. The prisoner gave a quick nod.

"Closing up this area." He said firmly, suturing it up and bandaging it before walking over to the other side of the table. His assistants followed.

"I dabbed up the blood as best I could!" Maria said as the kid removed the temporary bandages Maria had placed. The gash he saw underneath was large, but not that large. Maybe the size of a half-dollar coin.

The prisoner drained any blood that hadn't already dried. "Forceps." He called, using them to pull the wound together before suturing it shut. Although, now he had to make the actual cut.

"Alright, I'm making the incision. Dr. Freebird, walk me through this, please." The kid said in his usual emotionless tone.

"Right. Let's see what we're dealing with, first."

The surgeon opened the wound. The skull underneath was cracked, with all the cracks leading to the center like a bloodshot eye. Not one of the pieces had fallen, but most of them were detached from the rest of the skull. A blow like this must've caused the patients unconsciousness, not the lack of oxygen.

"... That's not quite as bad as I feared..." Hank mumbled, trying to stay positive. "Can you remove any of those bone fragments?"

The kid took the forceps and poked at a bone fragments, which jiggled like a loose tooth hanging on by a thread. Carefully, he grasped it with the forceps and found it to be detached, moving it onto a tray to his right. "Yes, I can." The surgeon said, as if that wasn't immediately obvious.

"Okay, collect all the fragments, but be quick and careful. We can't leave the brain exposed to air for too long."

The red-eyed surgeon did as he was told - quickly and carefully. He had all the pieces on the tray in a matter of seconds. Hank immediately grabbed his own set of forceps and worked on assembling the pieces.

"In this case," He explained while he worked, "It's easier to assemble the pieces and put the finished piece into place." Maria and the prisoner watched him intently. Maria wasn't really listening to his narration.

A few seconds later, Hank put his forceps down. "Rock Solid. Done!" Hank announced, passing the tray to the surgeon, who affixed the bone in place after rotating it a few times. It fit perfectly.

"No synthetic bones required. That's a relief." Hank sighed.

"Dr. Freebird, you'll take command of the operation from here." The prisoner reminded while finishing the stitching on the right temple and securely bandaging it. "There."

"You're up, Hank!" Maria yelled, as if to remind him further.

"Right!" Hank said with enthusiasm, making his own incision into the girl's chest.

_The results of her suicide will be pain and three scars... _The red-eyed surgeon thought. _I wonder..._

_

* * *

_

_"... Hey..."_

_"... You there...?"_

_"... Open your eyes..."_

The girl awoke to find herself in a big plain of some kind. The area around her was dark, and smoke surrounded every surface except the circle of land she was standing on. The girl carefully got to her knees, feeling the soft grass on her palm, and then to her feet, which felt every blade of grass - every droplet of dew.

_"... Over here..."_

A voice ran through the girl's ears. It was coming from all directions, like she was surrounded by speakers on all sides. The girl carefully looked around in front of her, but all she saw was fog.

_"... Behind..."_

It didn't take long for the girl to decipher the clue. She slowly turned her head to look behind her, her eyes filled with insecurity and caution.

A silhouette was standing in the fog, long and slender, arms resting comfortably at its sides. The silhouette had a slight hourglass figure, hips jutting out just a bit, despite being mostly flatchested. Her long, straight hair didn't move an inch in the light breeze, and just stayed in place like a doll's hair. The girl couldn't tell if the shadow was facing her or turned away from her... but somehow, she could feel the heat of its gaze.

"Who... who are you...?" The girl whispered, even though - in her heart - she knew too well who the shadow was.

_"... You failed..."_

She didn't answer the question, but it was quickly forgotten by the girl. The girl's eyes widened at the words. She had failed? ... Failure...? Why had she failed... what did she fail on? So many questions ran through the girl's mind, but before she could speak any of them, the silhouette's head lowered and began to talk again.

_"... Go..."_

_"... Open your eyes..."_

_"... See your new home..."_

_"... They're waiting for you..."_

With that, the shadow seemed to turn around. Its voice faded out, and its body began to fade as well.

"Ah...!" The girl gasped, reaching her hand out and collapsing onto her knees. "W-what do you mean...?"

There were no more words. The area around her began to fade, like a shadow was slowly swallowing it. And soon, she faded as well.

* * *

"Mmm..."

The girl groaned and opened her eyes just a little. She found herself lying on her back, staring up at a bright orange ceiling. The girl glanced down without lifting her head and felt her surroundings with her fingertips. She was on a bed of some sort. It wouldn't be the most comfortable thing in the world to most people, but the girl hadn't been in a real bed for months... maybe years. Being on something soft and clean was like heaven.

The girl smiled. All the more evidence that she was dead. Now she was a ghost. Maybe this was what life was like for a ghost. It certainly was cushy.

The girl put her elbow on the bed and pushed herself into a sitting position. The covers on the bed shifted, revealing what the girl was wearing. It was a baby blue hospital gown. She guessed that all ghosts wore these, and thought nothing of it.

The girl looked around the room to see of there was anything of interest. The room swam around her like rippling water, and the left side of her head ached, making it difficult to gather her focus. She eventually got some kind of clear view. The whole room was the same color, except the floor, which was paste white and made of large tiles. To her right was a large window, which was positioned so she could look out it while she was in bed. Gazing out the window, she had a clear view of the parking lot, which wasn't that full, despite being around noon, and a portion of the roof. Thankfully, the roof was also bare, save for a few pigeons.

The girl shifted her attention to the left side of the room, which looked considerably larger, because her bed was up against the right wall. There was a small desk with what looked like a portable laptop and a few papers. There was a small, metal wastepaper basket beside the desk that was 1/4th full of crumpled up papers. To the left of the wastepaper basket was a small closet. Undoubtedly where the doctor's coats and some medicines were kept.

However, there was one thing in the room that drew her attention most. In front of the desk was a small office chair. It was the kind that had four wheels connected to a single shaft that led up to the chair part, and it was built to roll around. The girl liked those kinds of chairs. She pictured having races down the hallway by kicking off a wall and rolling away. She had this same idea with shopping carts, and she remembered the day she tried it. That was how she got a bruise on her arm and a scolding from the manager. It had still been a fun day.

But what was even more interesting about the chair was what was on it: a person! He was asleep, laying his head peacefully on a mat of papers that were on the desk, while one of his arms was resting on the desk and the other hung over to his side, swaying slightly. His hair was dark brown - nearly black, actually - and extremely unkempt. The hair on the back of his head was splayed out, even though it wasn't at all long. A piece of hair on top of his head limply hung down, touching the table like a broken arm. His bangs rested in front of his face and moved slightly every time the boy exhaled. Overall, it looked like a big gust of wind has flown through the room and styled his hair. The girl couldn't help but smile at its messiness.

Unlike the boy's hair, the rest of his appearance was relatively spotless. His white doctor's coat could be mistaken for what angels wear. But that wasn't all he was wearing. She had to tilt her head at a weird angle to see it, but he was wearing a huge one-piece outfit underneath his coat. It was white, and had many stripes and buttons, as well as a strap-like thing for the neck part. The shoes were even part of the outfit. They were connected to the pants, and the pants were part of the shirt. It was kind of cute, actually, and if it had a hood, he might look like a Teletubbie. She was disappointed to see that it didn't have a hood.

Despite this, both the doctor's coat and the weird, stripy, onesie were too small for him - at least, in the sleeves. Half of his forearm was fully exposed. His forearm was very skinny, too. She could practically see the bones in his hands. Still, he looked like the type that was skilled with his hands... like they had gotten a lot of use in the past.

The girl smiled at the boy, despite how his eyes were closed and he couldn't smile back. She was well aware that she was probably a ghost, but she decided that she would be friendly. The girl gently folded the covers back and rotated her body into sitting position. She felt pain in her chest coming from her ribs, warning her not to take another step, but she ignored it. Who cares about pain when you're a ghost? The girl stared at the floor and gingerly touched it with her toes. It was smooth and cold, but she liked how it felt on her feet. Although, how could she walk if she was a ghost? The girl didn't know. Maybe she was a zombie? Nah, that's silly. She didn't crave to eat the boy's brains.

Never the less, the girl slowly put more pressure onto her feet until she could press against the mattress with her arms and move herself into standing position. It was weird how she had to use this technique, but she had to be careful. Her ribs were still warning her not to make any sudden movements, or they would begin complaining. It was like learning to walk for the first time again. The girl smiled.

The girl grabbed the covers to her bed (She guessed that the myth about ghosts not being able to grasp solid objects was bullcrap) and gingerly walked over to the boy, standing on her tiptoes, but still standing straight. She silently approached the boy, who continued to sleep, only murmuring a little and moving his head and arm a little.

Finally, she was right next to him. They were only a foot apart, and she could hear every breath he took and see his chest lightly rising and falling. The girl leaned down just a little and spread the covers from her bed over him and the chair he was sitting on. The boy groaned a little in his sleep as soon as she did this, making the girl jump a little.

"... Rosa... lia..." He murmured. His voice was deep for his age. He looked so young. 16, maybe? She was no good with ages. "... stop that... I'm not... gonna give you a piggy-back ride..." The boy grunted and shifted his position again. Was he having a happy dream or a nightmare? The girl had no idea, but she thought it was cute anyway. The girl looked at his face and his peacefully closed eyes. He sure had long lashes for a boy! The girl quickly bent down to get a better look.

That was a mistake.

Her ribs began to scream at her and blasted pain up through her chest like rockets. "A... h...!" The girl stumbled into the back wall, covering her mouth with one hand and clutching her aching, agitated chest with the other. The pain was intense, like her bones were sharp jigsaw pieces threatening to come loose and pierce her body if she made another move. Still, she had to cover her mouth. She didn't want to wake the boy, even if she was in so much pain.

"U...gh!" The girl groaned, but it was muffled by her mouth. If she stayed bent over, the pain lingered like a foul stench. If she straightened, it intensified. She didn't know what to do. She squeezed her eyes shut and avoided the urge to make anymore noises out of pain.

Suddenly, she felt something warm against her chest. It was warm, but it was kind of soft. Not like a blanket... she couldn't describe it. Slowly the girl opened her eyes and looked up.

A pair of red eyes looked down at her. His eyes were cold and emotionless, like he wanted to kill her right there. She stared into his eyes with fear. It was like the eyes of a vampire through a forest of unkempt hair.

His strong hands were on her shoulders, squeezing them slightly. For a second, she thought she would die by his hand... until she noticed. He had the covers to her bed laying on his shoulders and wrapped around his body like a veil or cape. But he was missing something... his doctor's coat!

The girl stared down at his hands. He wasn't pinning her against the wall, he had placed something on her. His coat. That warm feeling must've been his body heat from the coat... and yet, his hands were making her shoulders feel cold. Why? She couldn't understand...

"... Are you alright?" The boy asked, his voice void of any emotion whatsoever. The girl looked up at him. She had nearly forgotten about the pain in her chest. The curiosity of the boy with red eyes had been its own painkiller... but once she remembered the pain, it came right back, but it was dulled. It didn't have close to the strength it had before.

The girl looked at the ground, and then back at his face. Her dull, green eyes filled with guilt.

"I'm sorry I woke you-" "Sorry I fell asleep-"

The two spoke at the exact same time. The red-eyed, dark haired boy blinked as if he was confused, but wasn't sure how to show it. The girl's eyes widened.

Suddenly, she started to giggle. Her chest groaned in pain from the bursts of air it took to giggle, but she ignored the pain, even if it intensified.

The docotr took his hands off her shoulders. She kept giggling. She couldn't help it. It was too funny how they were both guilty.

The young, red eyed doctor wished he knew why she was laughing.

And he wished he had a chance to join in.


	4. Spoiled Visitation

**[[Author's Note: This isn't one of my better chapters. I had no clue what to do with the second half until I started writing it. Heh. :P Oh well, I hope you can enjoy it anyway. Things will start to pick up in the next chapter. ;D**

**Again, no song clip. It's hard to think of these things. ~]]**

**

* * *

**Navel stared at the ground and finally finished his little story. He figured it was high time he came clean with Dr. Kimishima about what was on his mind, whether he thought it was important or not. Naomi listened politely, only raising her eyebrows slightly every once in awhile (which was the only indication that she was paying attention other than eye contact).

When Navel was done, Naomi looked away.

"So, let me see if I have my facts straight." She said firmly. Navel nodded stiffly and gulped.

"You think that you were the cause of the girl's attempted suicide because you left her in fron tof the FBI building, because you were late to work." Naomi said bluntly before looking at Navel right in the eye again. "Is that right?"

"W-well... In a nutshell... yes, I suppose." Navel said in a low voice, a slightly guilty look on his face.

"Little Guy... that's... that's beyond absurd!" Naomi accused, saying it as though she was stating a fact. "A 10-year-old wouldn't base such a... life-changing decision on the reaction of a stranger."

"I know. I thought of that." Navel said. "Still... I can't help thinking that I have some kind of role to play. I mean, think about it - my actions and her attempt. It can't just be a coincidence, can it? It's like my actions made her take that final step towards the edge."

Naomi stared at him for a moment and paused. She slowly shut her eyes.

"I can't confirm or deny that possibility." She paused briefly and opened her eyes again. "But I do know that standing around here won't yield any answers. Little Guy, make preparations at Resurgam and check the visiting hours. I'll investigate the... 'scene of the crime', here."

"D-Dr. Kimishima ? ! D-Don't we have other work to do...?" Navel stammered. Naomi turned her back to him and walked forward a few steps.

"I think there's more to this case than meets the eye. The chief will understand." Naomi murmured. Navel's eyes widened and he understood what she was planning. He nodded.

"Alright, Dr. Kimishima. I'll call with results soon." He said. With that, Navel walked back to his car at a brisk pace and hopped in. He backed out of the parking lot, shoved the gear shift into drive, and sped off. Naomi glanced over her shoulder as the black mercedes faded into the distance.

Naomi sighed and walked over to the rope with the rock tied to it. In the rush, the paramedics obviously left it behind. It wasn't their job to collect evidence anyway.

"Now... let's see if I can find out why you tried to snuff out your own flame..." Naomi murmured to herself.

* * *

Navel pulled into the parking lot of Resurgam and stepped out of the car in all his purple-suited glory. He straightened his tie a bit and shut the door to his Mercedes behind him before walking up to the building itself. On the outside, it was a sight to behold. It's white walls were littered with windows that covered a majority of the building. Brick columns and details lined the building's entrance and some of the walls. It looked huge; judging by the window placement, it looked to be 4 stories tall, maybe even more, and it was very wide as well. At the top of the center part of the building, which jutted forward from the rest, was the words "Resurgam" with "University School of Medicine, First Care Center" painted in red underneath it.

Navel put his hands in his pockets and walked through the glass, sliding doors with a professional looking gait.

Inside was a large lobby-type area with cream colored walls. Two large, square openings on the left and right walls gave way to hallways that were littered with doors, most likely to offices, storage closets, or patient rooms. In the center of the back wall was a desk that was build into the wall. It was U shaped with a door on the side like a bar so someone can man the station. On either side of the desk was an elevator for going to the other floors. Everything was neat, organized, and symmetrical.

A young intern was manning the desk today, and a woman was in with her, teaching her how to use the search engine on the computer. The woman teaching the intern had a very formal look; her exotic doctor's coat rested over her red kimono, which was flecked with five-petal pink and white flowers. She was wearing a deep-red, long skirt that went down to her shin, which were covered by what seemed to be black combat boots - a direct contrast to her other traditional Japanese clothing. However, it seemed to represent something: under all that traditional and formal clothes, she was a tough girl.

Her purple eyes glanced up at Navel, and she smiled peacefully, bringing her hands together against her clothes. She stepped out of the desk, her black, long hair flowing like a river behind her as she moved - nearly hovered - towards him.

"Ah, hello." She greeted. "I'm sorry, but visiting hours aren't for awhile."

"Uh, That's why I'm here, actually." Navel said. "Dr. Kimishima requested that I find out what the visiting hours are. She... wants to visit someone."

"Ohhh, you're Naomi's assistant?" The lady said cheerily.

"Yes. My name is Navel. Agent Navel." Navel didn't know why he pulled a James Bond reference when introducing himself, but it certainly made him sound cooler. It would've been even better had he thought to show his FBI badge, but he wasn't supposed to do that unless it was important.

"I see. I'm Dr. Tachibana. But you may call me Tomoe if you like." She smiled. "Flexibility with names is following the path of honor."

"Uh... right." Navel said quietly. "Anyway..."

"Ah, yes, the visiting hours start at 12 o' clock. You and Miss Kimishima may stop by then."

"Ah, that's great." Navel said. He thought for a moment. Naomi would be very picky about details. He couldn't miss a single thing that Naomi would ask. "Oh, uh... the patient in question... she received a blow to the temple... uh... at around 7 o clock or so... Would you have any idea when she might wake up?" Navel new this was a stupid question, but he had a feeling Naomi would ask about that.

"I work in endoscopy, Agent Navel, so that isn't my area of expertise. Would you like me to ask one of the surgeons? Leaving a guest without an answer is dishonorable." Tomoe asked.

"If it isn't too much trouble." Navel shrugged.

"It's no trouble at all. He isn't busy at the moment. Follow me, please." Tomoe turned on her heels and began walking down the right hallway. Navel briskly followed for what-seemed-like-forever until they were at a room at the end of the hall. Tomoe took out a ring of keys and sorted through them before finding the one she needed and opening the door.

The room inside was bright and cream colored - even more so than the hallways and lobby. The floor was hard and tiled; It made a tapping sound when Navel and Tomoe walked on it. The room looked large, but it was split by a wall of steel bars (which were also cream colored). If you looked closely, you could see two Ts shaped out of the bars.

On the other side of the cage, the area was darker, with a cot and a few misc. objects. On the bed was a dark haired boy in a doctors coat and unbuckled straight-jacket. The boy was handcuffed, his emotionless red eyes staring at the floor until the two entered. He glanced up at them.

"A... guest?" He asked in a low voice.

"Yes. Agent Navel, this is one of our best surgeons, CR-S01... or at least, that's what the police said we could call him." Tomoe said that second part distastefully. Navel was half expecting another 'path of honor' reference.

"Ah. Well, you can call me Navel." Navel introduced. CR-S01 just looked at him blankly.

"What do you want?" He murmured, but not in an angry tone like some people would ask it.

"Ah... well... there's a girl that Dr. Kimishima is interested in visiting... she had a gash on her temple and-"

"The girl." CR-S01 murmured, now looking up at him. "I requested to visit her later as well. I suspect she'll be awake by visiting hours... around noon or 1 o' clock, I'd say."

Navel was surprised the caged surgeon knew exactly what patient he was referring to, despite all the patients that must be in the hospital. "I see. That's good news." Navel said in a slightly surprised tone.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, which was almost immediately broken by Navel's phone ringing (His ringtone was the chorus to Grenade by Bruno Mars). Navel's cheeks turned red and his smiled awkwardly as he dug in his pocket for his phone.

"Hello?" He answered.

"I'm nearly done here. Any results from Resurgam."

"Ah, yes. It seems we'll have to wait awhile. Visiting hours start 4 hours from now, but the patient will wake up 5 to 6 hours from now."

"... I see." Naomi said blandly. Navel couldn't tell if she was disappointed or frustrated by any of that. "We'll have to wait then. 5 to 6 hours is plenty of time to start on other cases. Let's go back to the office."

In Naomi language, 'leg's go back to the office' means 'get back to the office and hurry up with it'.

"Alright, I'm on my way, Dr. Kimishima." Navel hung up. With Naomi, there really wasn't a need for goodbyes when they would be voice chatting a mere few minutes later. Navel turned to Tomoe and glanced at CR-S01, who was back to staring at the floor. "I guess I gotta head out."

Tomoe bowed slightly. "Take care. I'll have someone call Dr. Kimishima in case anything calls!"

Navel looked over his shoulder, gave a slight nod, and with that, he was gone, heading out the door in his professional stride. Tomoe glanced back at him and then looked at CR-S01.

"You're planning on visiting the girl too, you said?" Tomoe questioned. CR-S01 didn't look up from the floor.

"She's... a peculiar case. I have to monitor her." he replied.

"I'm not surprised that Forensics wants to question her, then."

"..."

"I take it you have questions for her as well?"

"..."

"... Alright, I'll talk to you later then." With another twirl on the heels, Tomoe exited the room, locking the door shut behind her. CR-S01 kept staring at the floor and his cuffed hands, silent as a graveyard.

* * *

**6 and a half hours later...**

Navel had been keeping a close eye on the clock, and now it was finally 12:30. For the last few hours, Naomi and Navel had been busy with a murder case, although the whole thing was pretty clear-cut. All the evidence was already fitting into place, and it didn't feel like they had worked too much at all.

Naomi had already asked the chief if she could investigate the attempted suicide, and David had said it was fine as long as she reserved time for the other cases as well. Navel knew all this because Naomi had left her headset on when David had come into the room. Navel wasn't really one for eavesdropping (as tempted as he's been in the past) but this time, he really couldn't avoid it.

When 12:30 p.m. rolled around, and Naomi had gotten yet another piece of solid evidence in the form of a card, Navel wasn't sure if he should remind her of their planned hospital visit or not.

"... Dr. Kimishima?" He asked, hesitantly.

"What is it, Little Guy?" Naomi said seriously.

"Should we head out? To Resurgam, I mean."

"Ah, I had hoped you remembered. I didn't want to be the one to remind you."

"D-Doctor..." Navel whined, his cheeks the color of strawberries.

"Well, let's get going. We'll be taking your car, so I'll meet you in the parking lot." Naomi's voice on the headset stopped along with any background noise, obviously from her turning off the headset. I guess Naomi meant they were leaving right now. Navel turned off his own headset and walked back to the parking lot (He had already told his bosses that Naomi would be taking him somewhere at this time). He felt like he had made this same trip mere minutes ago, when in fact it had been hours ago. Still, it felt like Deja Vu.

This time, however, Naomi wasn't just getting here. In fact, Navel had to wait for a minute or so before Naomi showed up. She was walking faster than normal and had her phone in her hand.

"Little Guy!" She called out to him. "I just got a message from a staff member at Resurgam! The patient... they can't find her... That girl has escaped from her room!"


	5. AdVENTures

**[[Author's Note: Not a good chapter in my opinion. D: It was intended to be longer, but I got carried away and thought that this was plenty long enough. More good stuff to come in the next chapter.]]**

* * *

Navel swerved his car into the closest parking spot to the entrance and leaped out, along with Naomi. The two darted through the sliding doors, barely giving them time to even open for them. Upon entering, the two found Tomoe standing in the center of the lobby, looking nervously down both hallways. At the sound of their footsteps, she turned. She stood straight with her hands resting peacefully on top of her clothes, but her face showed mild concern and alertness.

"Ah, Miss Kimishima, Agent Navel, you're here." She said firmly.

"The patient." Naomi said loudly. "You said she's gone? How is that even possible?"

Tomoe looked down at the floor guiltily. "I... I don't know. I find it hard to believe it wasn't locked..."

"Take me to the room. Now!" Naomi demanded. Tomoe turned and led them into the elevator, taking them to the 2nd floor. A whirring sound buzzed through their ears as the elevator climbed the shaft before coming to a slow halt. The doors parted like a fissure for the three inside.

Upon stepping out of the elevator, Naomi saw that the tension had already taken over. She could feel it. The three turned the corner and into the hallway, where upon they saw the hallway blocked by an arguing duo.

"**YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING HER! YOU DIMWIT!**" Navel and Naomi immediately recognized the voice of the enraged paramedic. Naomi and Tomoe were used to seeing the woman fighting and yelling at a certain diagnostician, but this time, she was yelling at a dark haired surgeon.

"M-Maria!" Tomoe called. However, it was ignored.

"DIDN'T YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT STATE SHE WAS IN ! ? SHE MIGHT BE TRYING TO KILL HERSELF AGAIN, AND IT'S ALL **YOUR** FAULT!" Maria grabbed CR-S01 by his collar and screamed right into his face - something she had already done before when she heard about him and the Cumberland College incident. This yelling fest wasn't quite the same magnitude, but Maria still sounded pissed. CR-S01's eyes were wide, yet he still had an emotionless feel to him.

"Maria! Please stop!" Tomoe ran up to Maria and touched her shoulder. "Yelling at him isn't going to change anything! Blaming someone for things out of their control isn't following the path of honor!"

Maria whipped around to Tomoe and growled.

"Out of his control ? ! What kinda excuse is that ? ! He should've been monitoring her!" Maria hissed.

"... She might be right." CR-S01 sighed. "I left to go check on other patients and get tools ready for today's scheduled operations." What CR-S01 really did was check on a few patients and then use the bathroom, but he wasn't about to say that out loud. "I should have gotten someone to watch her, but I thought that you would all be busy. I only planned to be gone for 7 minutes at the most. Somehow, that was enough time for her to escape..." he added.

While all this was going on, Naomi was examining the door to the girl's room. The door opened and closed just fine; nothing seemed to be broken. It was very unusual. If the door had been locked, how did she get out within the span of 7 minutes?

"Little Guy." Naomi called firmly, not giving eye-contact to the purple suited FBI agent who was standing on the other side of the hallway, away from all the quarreling between CR-S01 and the two girls. "I want you to search the room for anything irregular. I'm going to search for where the little escape artist could be hiding."

"Yes Ma'am." Navel nodded. Naomi jogged off, and Navel entered the room, looking for anything that his trained eye could find.

The room was in good order. Everything was neat and clean. She obviously hadn't rushed trying to escape. Maybe it wasn't that complicated for her. Navel remembered that this was a little girl. She must've used a simple trick. But how did she do it?

Navel spotted a bag of the patient's belongings on her bed. It was the same one she had when they first met outside the FBI building. Now he could see what she kept inside it. Upon examining the bag, he found that it was waterproof. It must've been expensive. Why would she buy something like this? Whatever was in this bag must be extremely important.

Navel also noticed that stick-like thing he couldn't identify last time. Up close, it was obvious. It was kind of this and stick-like, with 6 peg-like things stemming from the top. A single metal string was tied around each peg. Obviously, this was the neck of a guitar. Navel opened the bag and pulled it out by the neck. Ah, it was too small for a guitar. A ukelele! It wasn't anything special, and it wasn't in the best condition. Navel was glad Naomi wasn't here to tease him about the last time he had handled a guitar.

Under the guitar was a black tape recorder and some empty tapes. He wondered what was recorded on it. There was also a burned piece of paper. Looked like a family portrait... but he couldn't see it very well. It was faded, and one of the people's faces had either been torn or burned off.

Navel looked at all the items. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing - something that had to be here...

"You must've helped her escape!" Maria shouted at CR-S01, who had his back press against the wall. "Just admit it!"

"That's a ridiculous accusation!" Tomoe interjected. "You're just looking for someone to blame! That is very dishonorable!"

"Stop blaming each other out there, please!" Navel called from inside. He suddenly grinned. "Besides, I think I have a pretty good idea of how she escaped!"

"**What ? !**" Maria, Tomoe, and CR-S01 suddenly gasped at the same time. "HOW ? !"

"It's easy. All she'd need is medical tape and a pair of forceps from the medical closet." Navel pointed to the closet near the desk where some supplies were kept. It was open very slightly.

"How do you escape a locked room with medical tape and forceps ? !" Maria screeched.

"Think about it. She owns a ukulele, but she doesn't have a pick!" Navel said, holding up the ukulele he found in her bag. "She just mounted the pick onto the forceps with medical tape and voila! Instant lock-picker!"

"She picked the lock? How does a 10-year-old even do something like that ? ! This is one smart girl!" Maria gasped.

"Yes. She could use that to pick other locks as well. She might even be able to use it as a screwdriver. That said... she could be anywhere in the building."

"Oh no..." Tomoe sighed, looking considerably distraught. They had no lead. Where could she have gone?

* * *

"Dammit... why did I have to be dragged into this mess... why now?"

Gabriel Cunningham was walking leisurely through the halls. Chief Patel had ordered him to help search for the missing patient. He really didn't want to help, but he didn't want anyone to search his mess of an office besides himself, so he figured that he would just 'search' his office for the next 30 minutes until the girl was found. It would be impossible for the girl to be in there anyway, right? He always locked it behind him.

Gabe took out the key to his office and put it in the lock, but somehow found it to be unlocked. Did he forget? No... Gabe could think of a million other reasons besides that, and one of them was sitting in a chair with a blue hospital gown on.

"Hey doc!" The kid smiled, his amber eyes seen through a mess of dark green hair.

The worst part about this whole thing? Joshua had come to get diagnosed. He just had some ulcers that needed to be taken care of through endoscopy. It was no big deal.

"Hey... Joshua." Gabriel said uncomfortably, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and putting the bud out in an ashtray on his desk before quickly relighting another. Gabe knew it wasn't okay to smoke in the hospital, and he knew Lisa would kill him if she found he was smoking near Joshua, but it's not like he cared.

"Why's everyone so worried all of a sudden?" Joshua asked. He must've heard the commotion outside. It didn't really surprise Gabriel - Maria can suuuuure be loud.

"Some bratty kid decided to play a little hide-and-seek with everyone." Gabriel scoffed. "Gigantic pain in the neck..." He muttered under his breath.

"Oh." Joshua fidgeted nervously. "Was it a girl?"

Gabe's eyes widened and he stared at Joshua. "How do you know that?"

"She had long hair and a gown like mine?" He asked again. Gabe's eyes widened even more and he leaned forward a little.

"How...? Have you **seen** her?"

"She burst into your office a few minutes ago!" Joshua bursted out. "She ran around the corner there!" Joshua pointed. "Then I heard a big clanging sound... and then I didn't hear anything else."

"You idiot!" Gabe suddenly shouted. "Why didn't you give chase ? !"

"I... I thought you'd get mad if you saw me out of my chair. You told me not to leave this seat, remember?"

"... oh..." Gabe murmured. He turned around and ran down the corner. It was the 2nd part of his office, which was where most of his trash was. This was also where he mainly went to go through 'candidates'.

Bad part about this place? Well...

_"Dr. Cunningham. I regret to inform that an intruder passed by your office approximately 6 minutes and 38 seconds ago." _

It was the monotone voice of a woman. It was wordy and precise. It was sitting in the corner of his office. It had a blue screen with lots 5 circles in a line on it, with one getting smaller and bigger.

It was RONI. And It was a pain in the ass.

"Ugh, thanks RONI, I already know that! Just tell me where the damn girl is and I'll be on my way!"

_"I am unable to locate the presence of the intruder at this moment, Dr. Cunningham."_

"**WHAT ? !** Why not ? !" Gabriel yelled.

_"She must be in a place where I do not have sensors." _

"Greeeaaaaat..." Gabriel moaned and rubbed his forehead. He recalled what Joshua had said: A loud clang, then nothing. What could that mean?

Gabriel turned his attention away from RONI and looked at his office. It was a huge mess that Gabriel was never going to even try and clean up. Yet, among the mess, something caught his attention.

"What's this?" Gabriel bent down and picked up something that was sitting on the floor. It was a screw. It wasn't very long, but it had a big head. It looked like an old screw as well - something that hadn't been taken from it's place in days. Gabriel couldn't shake the feeling that this had been removed recently.

Then it hit him.

Gabriel looked up.

"Son of a... don't tell me..."

Above Gabriel was a vent that spewed out cold air from the air conditioner. The panel of it was barred and looked like it was securely in place.

But one screw was missing from the corner of the panel.

"She's...!"

_"Dr. Cunningham, may I ask why the sweatiness of your palms has increased?" _

"Shut the hell up, RONI! The girl's in the air vent! She unscrewed the panel and crawled in!"

_"That is a likely explanation, Dr. Cunningham. I do not have sensors in the air vent."_

Gabriel wasn't listening to RONI. He ran to his desk and punched in the first number that came to mind. Joshua looked at him curiously. Roni remained silent.

* * *

"Eh?"

The awkward silence between Tomoe, CR-S01, Navel, and Maria was broken when a loud ringing was heard. Everyone looked around. Eventually, all eyes rested on Maria.

"Phone call ? !" Maria yelled, reaching into her jacket pocket and whipping out her black cellphone. "What do you want ? !" She yelled.

_"Who is this? Maria ? ! GAH, of anyone I could've called..." _a deep voice on the other end mumbled.

"GABE ? !" Maria screamed into the phone. "Why the hell are you calling ? !"

_"Look, I don't have any time to explain! The girl you're looking for! I found her!"_

"What ? !" Maria yelled. Everyone's jaw dropped, since they could all hear Gabe's voice through the phone. "Where is she?"

_"She's in the air vent! She unscrewed the plate on the ceiling and crawled in. That thing leads up to the roof, but that's not the point!" _There was a brief pause as Gabe took a breath (or maybe a drag on his cigarette). _"Look, whatever you do, DON'T turn on the AC in here! That vent leads up to a fan, and above that is the engine that runs the AC! If you turn it on, the fans'll spin while she's trying to climb through them_!"

"Don't turn on the AC? As if we were-"

Tomoe's face suddenly filled with panic.

"Chief Patel went to turn on the AC a minute ago!" She shouted.

_"WHAT ? !" _Gabe shouted. Suddenly, his voice was gone. He had hung up.

"WHA- HEY! GABE! YOU JACKASS!" Maria screamed.

"What's he thinking ? !" Tomoe gasped.

"I dunno, but we better get down there!" Maria yelled as she began sprinting down the hall. "Come on!"

* * *

"Dammit!" Gabriel stomped his foot on the ground. It was too late to tell Chief Patel to turn off the AC. He didn't think she'd listen to him anyway.

_"Judging by the current conditions, the girl's chance of survival is approximately 23%."_

"Dammit RONI, can't you TRY to be encouraging ? !" Gabriel yelled.

_"Certainly. 23% percent is still a bit above a 1/5th percent chance. That is still a chance."_

"Grr..." Gabriel growled at the machine. No help at all...

Gabriel thought it would be best to approach this whole mess of a situation from a professional standpoint. That is, calm down and go through the options. He could call the fire department, but they would never get there in time. There's no way he could go up in the air vent and rescue the poor girl, and since the air vent was in a sideways L shape, he couldn't toss a rope up (even if he had one).

"Doc?"

Gabriel was knocked out of his thoughts instantly at the voice. He turned and saw Joshua standing a ways from him.

Wait... Joshua? That's it!

"Joshua, I need your help." The instant those words came out of his mouth, Gabe regretted them. Could he really put a patient through this? Was this even legal? It was his son!

No, there was no question. This was the only way to save her. Saving lives seemed to be the only things Gabriel cared about anymore. He wasn't going to let this one slip away.

"With what?" Joshua asked, eyes wide and confused.

"Just come over here! If you help me with this, I'll get you some take-out from a restaurant, not the crappy hospital food!"

Within a few seconds, Gabriel had grabbed Joshua by the waist and fed him into the air vent. Joshua shimmied up the vent; it was perfect for his size, he just had to push his arms and legs against the sides and move slowly so he didn't fall.

After a few seconds, Joshua climbed up to the horizontal facing air vent and began to crawl down it. The area was dusty, but not that dusty. He began to hear a whirring sound like helicopter blades spinning. Cool air began to whoosh against his face. After a moment, Joshua found himself looking up at a whirring fan, spinning faster than a Video Game disk when you put it in the Playstation 2. It's blades looked sharper than a chef's knife, and it struck fear into the boy the instant he laid his eyes upon it.

"Doc... I don't think I-" Joshua began to call, but something caught his attention. "Huh?" Through the blades of the fan, he could make out a figure in a blue gown. At first, he thought it was his reflection, but he could see the long, angelic hair... and dull green eyes looking down at him with fear.

"H... help me...!" The figure whispered down to him. The girl was out of breath from fear and from hanging on to the sides of the vent. She couldn't hang on much longer. And if she fell...

Joshua shook his head free of the thought. "Don't worry! I'm gonna save you!"

All he had to do was clog the fan. But what could he use? ... It was a no-brainer. He only had one thing that could work. Joshua took his shoes off and held them firmly in his hand.

"Here goes nothing...!" Joshua threw his shoes up into the fan. Suddenly, there was a hiss and a screech. The fan bit down on his shoes and shivered, growling and hissing with rage. It wouldn't hold still for long. Joshua looked up. The girl was motionless from fear and shock.

"Come on! Hurry! That isn't gonna hold for long!" Joshua shouted. With a sputter, one of Joshua's shoes came free from the fan, falling at his feet.

"**Hurry!**" Joshua shouted. The girl suddenly released her grip and began to fall head-first. Her body was straight like an arrow, heading straight for the hissing and sputtering fan. The fear in her eyes grew as she neared it, before she clamped them shut and covered her eyes.

Joshua watched as the girl fell through the fan, her slender figure slipping through it. With another sputter, the fan suddenly sliced Joshua's other shoe in half and sprang into action, spinning faster than it ever had.

But it was too late. The girl had barely passed through, just in time.

With a crash, the girl slammed into the bottom of the air vent and tumbled into Joshua before coming to a stop on her back.

"Wah... Hey! You alright...?" Joshua shouted at the girl, obviously concerned. Suddenly the girl looked up - tears still in her eyes - and wrapped her arms around Joshua, hugging him as tight as she could.

"Thank you...! Thank you!" She gasped, completely out of breath and obviously exhausted.

"H-hey... it's no problem... heheh..." Joshua chuckled, a bit embarrassed and confused.

"HEY JOSHUA!" Suddenly, Gabriel's voice echoed through the vent. "IS SHE SAFE?"

"Oh... Yeah, Doc! She's safe!" Joshua called with an elated tone of voice.

"Alright, good! Now get down here! That girl and I are gonna have a big TALK when she get down here!" Gabriel boomed, sounding more than a little mad.

Joshua looked back at the girl. She was asleep, her arms still wrapped around him. Great.

Joshua sighed, just feeling relief that the ordeal was finally over and done with.


	6. Tears

**[[Author's Note: The song clips are really hard to think of. XD But I have a lot planned for future chapters, so there might be long strings where I can't think of songs, and strings where there are song clips. 83]]**

* * *

Joshua shut the door behind him. It had taken awhile to get the girl down from the air vent without waking her because she was wrapped around him. In the end, Joshua had no choice but to jump and have Gabriel catch him, which succeeded, but Gabriel had this look on his face like that was extremely awkward for him. He took long drags on his cigarette in between talking. Joshua and Gabriel had a discussion about smoking on the way back, in which Gabriel's main response to anything Joshua said was 'I don't give a crap.'

Now, Joshua had returned the girl to her room, and she was resting peacefully on her bed. He walked into the hall and joined the group of doctors who were discussing something important. The group included consisted of Maria Torres, Tomoe Tachibana, CR-S01 (who seemed to be there but not saying anything) Gabriel Cunningham (who was leaning against the wall and blowing cigarette smoke at Maria just to be annoying), And Agent Navel (who was typing on a portable laptop).

Actually, the only people that were surprisingly **not** in the group was Chief Esha Patel, who had enough work to do and wasn't really involved in the situation, and she turned on the AC in the first place that could've killed the girl, so maybe she felt guilty, Hank Freebird, who also wasn't that involved, and Naomi Kimishima, which was an odd person to be absent considering that her assistant was here. Navel was looking up every few seconds to check if Naomi was coming down the hall. Was he concerned?

The whole group was idly discussing until Navel looked up and spotted Joshua.

"Ah, guys, that... boy is here." Navel obviously didn't know his name. Everyone looked at Joshua who walked up to them shyly.

"Uh... what're you guys talking about...?" He piped up.

"We're talking about that new friend of yours. Who else?" Gabriel scoffed. Maria turned and glared at him fiercely, which only made Gabe blow cigarette smoke right in her face.

After being restrained by Tomoe from beating the living daylights out of Gabe, Maria said, "Should the kid be in on this whole thing?"

"Of course." Tomoe said. "That girl is his friend as much as she is ours, if not more so."

"'Friend' my ass..." Gabriel mumbled. To him, that girl has been nothing but trouble ever since she arrived, and she'd only been here for a few hours. Usually it took a day or two before Gabriel had a patient that got on his nerves! (with Jacob Tillman as a not-too-rare exception).

"Being rude to the patients is dishonorable, Dr. Cunningham." Tomoe scolded.

"So what's going to happen to her?" Joshua said quietly.

"She's going to be kept at the hospital." CR-S01 finally spoke. He was standing a bit away from the rest of the group, just like Doctor Cunningham. But he was standing stiff and rigid, not saying anything until now. Everyone else looked at him. "We're going to be questioning her while giving her makeshift therapy."

"Huh? I thought she was just sick and her bones needed to heal." Joshua said, amber eyes wide. No one knew how he knew the patient's condition and didn't feel like asking. "Doesn't she just need to rest and she'll be okay? It's not like the problem with my tummy, right?" He was referring to the gastric ulcers that were going to be treated through Endoscopy tomorrow.

"... Unfortunately... I believe the problem isn't physical, it's psychological." CR-S01 said bluntly. Joshua just stared at him, eyes wide, obviously not understanding half the words he said.

"He means that it doesn't have to do with her body, it has to do with her mind." Tomoe clarified, looking at Joshua sweetly, like a mother.

"So she's Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?" Joshua giggled. Everyone just stared at him. He had basically asked if the girl was mentally insane, which, by medical terms, was a bit hard to answer.

"Maybe you should ask her yourself." Gabriel muttered. Everyone's attention shifted to him. "I'm gonna diagnose her anyway. I guess you can tag along..."

Joshua clapped his hands together. "Great!" He chirped.

"Hm? Is everyone starting without me?" Everyone turned at the sound of the voice. Naomi Kimishima was walking down the hall with her arms crossed. She seemed to have something shiny in her hand.

"Oh, of course not Doctor!" Navel said before anyone else could say anything. "I would've waited for you at least..." His voice trailed off and he tried to suppress the color rising to his cheeks. Of course, everyone saw it anyway. Navel glared at Dr. Cunningham when he began mumbling 'Naomi and Navel sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G'.

"Uh... thank you?" Naomi murmured, raising an eyebrow. "In any event, I came to visit her in the first place, so I intend to question her as well."

"Okay then." Tomoe said cheerfully.

"Woah, wait a minute!" Maria raised her voice. "How're we gonna decide who goes to visit her first?"

Silence fell over the hallway as everyone looked at each other.

* * *

It was an intense battle to decide who went in first, filled with trash talk, taunting, and fists. Fists in the shape of 'rocks' that is. Yes, it was a battlefield of Rock, Paper, Scissors. In the end. Gabriel Cunningham and Joshua defeated the competition, with Naomi Kimishima and Navel in 2nd, and CR-S01 and Maria in 3rd. Tomoe had to go check on other patients and had to leave, much to her shame. She seemed to be the only one who could hold some of these people back. (Mainly Maria.)

Joshua and Gabriel opened the door to the girl's room like they were knights going into a Dragon's Cave. She seemed to be sleeping, but something caught the master of deduction's eye - the covers. They were thrown haphazardly over her like she had flung them over her in a rush. Of course, this could merely be her tossing and turning in her sleep, but he had the sneaking suspicion that she was watching them.

This suspicion was enforced by the girl's timely awakening. A mere minute after they entered the room, the girl 'woke up', yawned, and looked at them as if she was surprised. _What an act, _Gabriel thought. _You can't fool me, girl._

The girl suddenly gasped. "It's you!" She jumped from her bed and hugged Joshua tightly. Joshua flinched, a shocked expression on his face like someone had thrown a kitten at him and he didn't know what to do with it.

"Geez, get a room, you two." Gabriel mumbled. The girl seemed to hear him and immediately got off Joshua. She clutched her chest as though her ribs were in pain, but she still smiled and seemed to ignore it. She quickly hopped back onto the bed. Joshua was smiling too, and his cheeks were quite red. Gabriel convinced himself that it was from being embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Mister." The girl said guiltily, giving Gabriel puppy eyes. "I didn't mean to go all mushy over your so-"

"**PATIENT!**" Gabriel suddenly interrupted, saying it much louder than he needed to. "Yes, patient is the word you meant!" He scratched the back of his neck nervously. Joshua was looking at him very oddly and he could feel the heat of his gaze.

"Anyway..." Gabriel murmured, indicating that he was getting serious with the inquisition. "So you're Little-Miss-Suicide, eh?"

"Doctor...!" Joshua groaned at Gabriel, resisting the urge to facepalm. The girl's eyes widened; she was obviously not happy with the nickname.

"Uh... uh... I... I guess..." The girl fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Right, so why did you do it?" Gabriel said, obviously not showing any regret for his earlier statement. The girl didn't say anything. She looked at the floor like she didn't even want to talk anymore. Gabriel bit down on his cigarette in annoyance.

* * *

**~20 minute later~**

* * *

Gabriel and Joshua exited the girl's room. Naomi Kimishima and Navel were waiting outside along with CR-S01 and Maria. Naomi raised an eyebrow at the frustrated look on Gabe's face, and looking down, she saw that Joshua had his arms crossed and was looking at the floor.

"So, how'd it go?" Maria said, smirking smugly. Gabe glared at Maria.

"She wouldn't talk about anything with me! She only spoke when Joshua talked to her!" He growled.

"That's because you were being mean to her, doc!" Joshua said. Gabriel stifled a glare at Joshua.

"I'm not surprised." Naomi sighed. "Joshua **did** save her life, you know. And I'm not surprised she got a bad impression of you, either."

"Heh, are you jealous of your patient, Gabey?" Maria teased, smiling. Gabriel clenched his fist and tried not to show that he was irritated, even though it was a little late for that.

Gabriel waved his hand. "Whatever, I'm going back to the office. You guys can go talk to her if you want. The room's unlocked."

Naomi gave him a nod and turned to the rest of the group. "I know it defeats the purpose of the little... Rock-Paper-Scissors game, but shall all four of us go in?"

"We'll have to try not to intimidate her." CR-S01 said quietly.

"Yeah, don't act like Gabe. Got it." Maria sneered.

Naomi, Maria, and CR-S01 entered the room. Navel lingered in the hall for a moment before finally following them. He had a lot on his mind. Would the girl want to see him again? Who was she, anyway? He had so many questions, but who knows if she would even talk to him?

Navel sheepishly stepped behind the others. He was completely hidden behind the others, who were looking at the girl on the bed. She had something black in her hand and was looking at either it or the floor. She seemed to be deep in thought and didn't notice them. Or maybe she did and wasn't saying anything.

Maria made the first stupid move. She bounced onto the bed with the girl and put her arm around her shoulder.

"HEYA KIDDO! How are ya?" She shouted with a big smile. The girl nearly dropped what she was holding and gasped with fear. She flinched away from Maria, her eyes wide, sweating and breathing sharply as if she was being cornered by a street mob.

"W-Who are you people ? !" She gasped.

"Maria!" Naomi scolded, putting a hand on Maria's shoulder. "You shouldn't be so bold! You'll frighten her!" Naomi sighed and gazed at the girl with a gentle look on her face. She pulled up a chair and gestured Maria to get a chair as well. The girl backed away from all of them as if she was still suspicious and scared.

Everyone was finally sat down (except for Navel, who was still standing in the doorway). Naomi had her legs folded neatly, her hands in her lap. Maria's legs were also folded, but not in a polite manner, more like a relaxed, 'kicking-back' manner. She had her arms folded behind her head, her green eyes staring at the girl and a big grin on her face. CR-S01 was sitting uncomfortably as if he didn't like sitting at all. He fidgeted a bit and changed his position frequently.

The girl's eyes bounced from CR-S01, to Naomi, to Maria, to Naomi, and then Maria again. Her breathing eventually steadied and her eyes, while still widened, seemed more like she was waiting for them to do something horrible than freaked-out.

"So, what's your name?" Naomi said, her pale lips curved into a slight smile.

"Uh..." The girl hesitated and looked at the floor. "Why do you wanna know?"

Maria gave the girl a serious stare. "Geez, we're just trying to be nice, you little runt-"

"Because we want to find out who you are so we can help you." Naomi interrupted, although she could tell from the girl's stare that she didn't like Maria in the least.

"Well, who are all of you?" The girl said quietly. It seemed that she didn't want to trust them yet.

"We asked you fir-"

"Maria, be still." Naomi interrupted her again. "You're acting like Gabe."

That knocked some sense into Maria. "Oh... Well, my name is Maria Torres, little girl!" She said with a smirk. "I'm a paramedic!"

Naomi couldn't tell if the idea of Maria being a paramedic surprised or frightened the girl.

"And my name is Naomi Kimishima. I'm a forensics specialist." Naomi said calmly. The girl stared at her blankly, probably not knowing what forensics meant.

"She figures out how dead people died." CR-S01 said bluntly. Naomi and Maria gave him a disapproving look. CR-S01 just stared right back. "What? That's what forensics means, right?"

"Yeah, but you didn't have to be that blunt, you idiot! She's only 10!" Maria shouted.

Maria and CR-S01 began arguing, with Naomi in between them trying to get them to stop. The girl sighed and decided it would be a good idea to leave them alone. She glanced over at the door to make sure the coast was clear...

And there he was, standing in the doorway. Purple suit, purple tie, purple slacks. Soft, blonde hair, unmoving. Dull, yet bright blue eyes staring at her, yet staring off into space at the same time, like he could see through her.

The girl stared right back. Her dull, green eyes slowly widened and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. She brought her hand in front of her mouth. It was shaking.

"... You... ? !" She whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. CR-S01 looked over at the girl, and then where she was looking. Maria, who was being restrained by Naomi, did the same. The room froze as if it was encased in ice. Only the girl's sharp and shallow breathing made a noise.

"Uh... Hi." Navel said awkwardly, swallowing a bit. He could tell the girl was surprised to see him.

"How long have you been here... ? !" The girl gasped.

"I entered the room with everyone else." Navel explained. "I... just... didn't sit down with everyone else... There... uh... weren't enough chairs?"

That was such a pathetic lie that even the girl knew it was stupid. Naomi nearly facepalmed.

The girl's eyes returned to normal size. Her mouth twisted into a slight scowl and her lips began to tremble. A line of tears formed underneath her eyes, dribbling down her cheeks without a sound.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered.

"Eh...?" Navel was taken aback, looking at the girl with surprise. The girl leaped from her bed (obviously causing her much pain that she didn't show) and nearly tackled Navel, who somehow managed to keep his balance despite stumbling a bit. The girl pressed her face into his chest and began to sob, staining his shirt with tears.

"I'm sorry!" The girl cried in between sobs. "I'm sorry... **I'm sorry**...!"

Navel looked at the girl with shock, and looked up at Naomi with a look in his eyes as if he was asking her what to do. Everyone was staring at him blankly. Naomi's expression didn't waver, and she said nothing.

Navel slowly put his hands on her shoulders. "Uh... hey... it's alright..." He bit his lip, not sure what to do with the trenbling, crying girl that has her arms wrapped around him so tightly it was like she was trying to crush him.

"Why's she apologizing to him?" Maria, as if trying to break the tension, whispered to Naomi. Naomi didn't make eye contact and just shook her head.

"I... think I might know why." She said softly.


	7. Spilled Beans

Once the group had settled down, it seemed that the little girl was willing to talk. Maria, Naomi, and CR-S01 were sitting in their usual spots, but Navel was sitting on the bed with the little girl, as per her request. Whenever someone said something she didn't like (that was Maria, most of the time), she would cuddle herself up against Navel's side, and sometimes look like she was tempted to suck her thumb. But being by Navel's side helped her relax and shrug off whatever Maria had said. Navel wasn't quite as pleased. His face was red with embarrassment and he kept giving Naomi a look that screamed 'Help me'. To which Naomi would give him a look back that said 'man up'.

They had learned more about the girl in 5 minutes than Gabriel had learned in 20.

Her name was Aira Mays, 10 and a half years old and turning 11 in 4 months. She wasn't actually from this city, she was from a city many miles away. After she became homeless and her parents left, she wandered from city to city to find food. She just so happened to end up in this one the day Navel found her.

"So you're homeless... and your parents..." Maria looked solemn, as if this brought up bad memories. "Didn't you have any siblings? You coulda gone to an orphanage if you had no choice, ya know."

"S-siblings...?" She whispered. She looked like she didn't want to talk about that. "I... I had Sis... for awhile... and Brother..." She shook her head and tried to change the subject. "But an Orphanage? That's where kids who can't take care of themselves go! I'm fine."

Judging by her pathetically skinny figure, she was far from fine. This girl belonged in an orphanage... or, even better, a foster home. But she seemed indignant about being in any sort of dire need. She wanted to be independent.

"How long have you been homeless?" Naomi asked. She was still curious about this 'Sis' and 'Brother' she mentioned, but she didn't want to make the girl talk about anything she wasn't comfortable with.

"Uhm... about... 2 years?" She said. Everyone in the room gasped. (Except CR, he just raised his eyebrows.)

"That's..." Maria whispered. "That's horrible..."

"You should be in a foster home." CR-S01 said coldly, making Maria glare at him again. Aira cringed at both the idea of a foster home and the idea of a fight breaking out between Maria and CR. She cuddled up closer to Navel.

"N-no thank you." Aira murmured in reply to CR. "I don't need a foster home."

CR-S01 looked over at Naomi, and Naomi looked at CR-S01.

"Did you ever go to school?" Naomi asked.

"I was homeschooled." She answered. "But... that had to stop after awhile. I'm super smart, though."

"Really?" Maria snorted. "What's 9 times 9?"

"..." The girl hesitated. "I'm smart at important things."

"Hah! Good answer!" Maria laughed.

"Math IS important..." CR-S01 mumbled, almost indignantly. Maria and Naomi ignored his comment.

There was a bit of a silence while everyone was thinking of more questions. Finally, Aira sighed and straightened a little (although she was still glued to Navel's side).

"I know you want to ask it. Go on, spit it out." She sighed. Naomi looked at Maria, and then at Navel, and then at CR-S01. Finally, she eyed the little girl.

"Why did you try to commit suicide?"

The girl opened her mouth and began to answer. "...I-"

"Hey drama queens!" Gabriel burst open the door. "Bad news - there's ANOTHER suicide patient."

"You're kidding. Another one ? !" Maria screeched.

"Yeah, although we found out her name was Claire, so it's not the same situation as this annoying brat." Gabriel gestured to Aira, who looked at him with a horrified stare.

"What's her condition?" Naomi said, now standing, along with Maria and CR-S01.

"She has a lot of broken limbs, and Hank is going to do orthopedic surgery. But he needs all the help he can get. Anyone wanna come with?"

"All of us will go." CR-S01 answered for everyone, and that was that. Naomi, Maria, and CR-S01 left. Navel ran for the door after Naomi, but stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to Aira, who was staring at the floor. She was holding herself with her arms as if she was cold. She had missed the warmth of snuggling up against Navel's side, the feel of every thread on his suit brushing up against her.

"Hey... uhm..." Navel said hesitantly.

"Just go..." She sighed. "She sounds like she's in a badder state than I was. Go."

"Geez, you make it sound like we'll care for a patient until a new one comes up that we can all focus on." Navel chuckled. His laughter was stifled when he realized that that's exactly what she had implied. Aira said nothing.

"Do you... want me to stay with you?" He asked sheepishly.

"Don't you want to go with your girlfriend?" She asked curiously.

"I... what... ? !" Navel exclaimed.

"Naomi." Aira clarified.

"N-naomi? N-no, you've got it all wrong!" Navel's face was rich with crimson. "Doctor Kimishima is my boss, not my girlfriend!"

Aira maintained a stony silence.

"Anyway, if you want me to stay with you, I'm sure Naomi wouldn't mind." Navel said, choosing his words carefully.

"No... I want to talk to Sis, anyway. Just go." Aira sighed.

Navel sighed and turned to leave. He shut the door behind him, which automatically locked. He was about to go and wait outside the OR, but he stopped dead in his tracks.

She wanted to talk to... Sis? Her Sister? But she's in the room alone, and her room is on the 2nd floor. There's no phone in her room and it's not like she would be allowed to use one if there was one. There's no way she could talk to... anyone! What did she mean by talking to her sister?

Navel realized that he left his laptop in Aira's room. Perfect! This couldn't be a bigger coincidence. The laptops had small cameras on them for various purposes. Navel could access the camera footage from his phone. Navel whipped it out and typed some codes in. The screen went black for a second, before the footage from his laptop camera came on like a TV channel.

The bad part was that his Laptop was facing **away** from Aira, so he got a nice view of a blurry wall. He could still hear the sound. There was rustling and a sound like things clattering together. Was she digging through her bag or the medical cabinet?

Finally, Navel heard a faint *click*.

_"Hi Sis. Sorry I couldn't send a message earlier. I've been stuck in this hospital for awhile... and all these people have been asking me questions..."_

That was Aira's voice, but there was no reply. Was she even talking to anyone?

_"I've met a lot of people. There's this girl with brown hair and dark skin. She's really mean and moody and I'm scared of her. But she says that she's a paramedic! Isn't that... scary? That someone like that can be a paramedic?"_

She was talking about Maria. It's true that Maria hadn't exactly been on her best behavior around the timid girl, so it was understandable for her to be scared of her. Navel still felt that she was jumping too far to conclusions with that 'that someone like that can be a paramedic' part, considering that it was both him AND Maria that saved her life.

_"That's not all, though. There was that nice doctor. Oops, I didn't tell you about him! He always has this blank look on his face, and he has these big, spooky red eyes, like a demon! But... and this may sound weird, but... I think he's a nice demon. Ha, a demon doctor! Isn't that funny? He's a surgeon, and he operated on me. He told me when we were talking after I woke up the first time. He's also really blunt and tells things like it is... he's not scared that I'm a kid... I like him for that..."_

CR-S01. Demon Doctor? That's one way to put it, Navel thought. It was interesting to see that Aira liked it when people didn't treat her like a child...

_"Then there was this white haired woman. She was really... uhm... elegant... almost like a ghost. She was really pale, but she had these big, blue eyes. But, you know what's creepy? They had no shine to them... it really was like she was a ghost! Like she was already dead! This is like a supernatural hospital! It's weird! But... anyway, that Ghost Lady was really nice, and she had a pretty smile... when she did smile. I almost never saw it because she was trying to keep Demon Doctor and Loud Paramedic from arguing."_

It didn't take any time at all to identify that as Naomi. Her definition of her was... sadly accurate, as far as Navel was concerned. Ghost Lady, Demon Doctor, and Loud Paramedic... seemed those were her nicknames for all of them. Navel hoped that she didn't call them by those names when they were around.

_"What else... Oh, before that, I got visited by this a doctor... what did he do again... Oh, he told people what's wrong with them. A diagnostician, that's what he was. And he brought his son with him. He saved my life from a scary fan in an air vent... don't ask why I was up there, I think you can guess. But anyway, that doctor guy was also really mean! It was like he was mad at me half the time and he was grilling me about everything! But you know the worst part? He didn't acknowledge his son as his son! But it was so obvious! They had the same last name, haircut, eyes! But he just referred to him as a patient and insisted that I do that to... even father didn't do that to us..."_

Gabriel and Joshua Cunningham. She sounded like she was completely appalled by Gabriel's act.

_"Also, while I was listening in on them in the hall, I think there was one other person that didn't come to see me. I know, I was listening in on everyone like a spy! It was kinda fun. Anyway, that other girl had a higher voice and she kept talking about honor. I think I admire her for that. Brother was honorable to, so..."_

Tomoe Tachibana. Brother was honorable? This brother of hers was a very curious subject.

_"And then... there was... **him**."_

She didn't even even have to clarify. Her soft tone of voice, the unsaid feeling buried within it. That was all the clarification Navel needed to make a lump form in his throat.

_"He's so pretty, isn't he, Sis? Remember when I told you about him at the lake? At the hospital, I cuddled up against him... he was so warm! I wanted to feel his soft hair and touch his hand... aha! I must sound so stupid... but... he made me feel like I could trust all the others... because if they used the info for bad things, he'd make things right! Like a superhero! Haha!"_

... Navel's mouth just hung open...

_"But... you know... his face was bright red... like he was embarrassed to have me around. I guess he thought he looked silly right next to a 'little girl.' He was in front of his girlfriend, too. Oh, that's Ghost Lady, by the way. I guess I can see why he would like her but... but..."_

_"Oh Sis! I would give just about anything if he was born into our family, or I was born into his! But... I wouldn't want him to suffer the hardships of our family... and I still want you to be Sis and Brother to be Brother. But... I would love to live with him... if only for a day. Learn his past... see all the stuff in his house..."_

Her voice trailed off. Navel was absolutely speechless.

_"Anyway, It's not like that'll ever happen, right? Haha, I'm just rambling. I don't really have much else to say, but in this Supernatural Hospital, I think I'm going to have plenty more thing to tell you! We're going to have so much adventure!"_

Suddenly, the view on the camera began to shift, and he heard a sound like his laptop being moved. The image rotated until he saw Aira's face, looking directly into the camera.

_"Right, Agent Navel?"_

"**AAAH!**" Navel dropped his phone and made a slightly girly shriek. He heard Aira giggling with glee on the camera. Navel quickly grabbed his phone and made a run for it. He hadn't the faintest idea that Aira had been watching! Had she said all those things because she KNEW he was watching ? ! Navel only knew one thing - this girl had spooked him out of his wits. He ran to the OR as fast as he could. Maybe just to be with Naomi and the others. Maybe just to be away from the eyes and innocent giggling of that girl.

* * *

By the time Navel had arrived at the OR, the operation had ended. Claire, the new suicidal girl, had to go through Orthopedic Surgery to treat the many fractures in her right arm and left leg. Hank had obviously been operating, and Tomoe had been supporting. Naomi, CR-S01, and Maria mostly stood out of the way, ready to do anything they could do to support. All of them were now outside chatting.

As Navel approached, Naomi shot a glance his way.

"Little Guy, what took you so long?" She asked. "Were you spending some time with the little girl?"

"I... uh..." Navel stammered.

"That's very honorable of you to look after her while we were busy with the operation." Tomoe said, her whole face lighting up with her smile. "Thank you."

"It... uhm... it was nothing. Just doing my job, I guess." Navel said as if he had just stopped a bank robbery. Naomi smirked.

"So your job is babysitting, now?" Naomi joked, although it was a little hard to tell she was joking.

"Uh... no!" Navel said almost indignantly.

"Kuh! It might as well be!" Maria sneered. "That girl doesn't seem to trust anyone but you! And she REALLY doesn't trust me for SOME reason! It's like she scared of me or something!"

"... It's kind of understandable..." Navel muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

There was a brief stare-down between Maria and Navel. Maria finally looked away and turned her attention to Hank, who was strangely quiet and had a troubled look on his face.

"Hey, what's the deal with you?" Maria asked. Hank looked at her and everyone else (Well, they assumed he was looking at them. His eyes are always closed, after all).

"Oh... I've just been thinking about those two girls... why would anyone try to end their own life? That's just... unacceptable."

"You said that during the operation, and I agree." Tomoe said, a slightly solemn look on her face.

"We never did find out why that little girl committed suicide did we?" Naomi reminded. "Gabe interrupted us."

Gabriel and Joshua were absent from the group. The two were in Gabe's office waiting for Lisa to arrive. It seemed that there was a lot of babysitting going on in Resurgam.

"That reminds me." Navel said, taking out his phone. "I wonder if I saved the camera data..."

"Little Guy? What are you muttering to yourself about?" Naomi turned to him. Everyone else looked up at Navel.

"I left my laptop in Aira's room earlier... and I... uhm... thought I heard something important so I..."

"You spied on her." Naomi finished his sentence. She was looking at him with disapproval.

"I recorded a bit of information from the camera, and maybe a lead on more about this girl. I have a feeling that she's still hiding things from us." Navel said, ignoring Naomi's gaze the best he could.

"Can we actually LISTEN to this information?" Maria said as if she was complaining.

"Uh..." Navel remembered the comments about Maria, Naomi, Gabriel, and CR-S01. "Best not."

"Huh?" Maria looked surprised. "Why the hell not? Is there something about us in there?"

"..." Navel sighed. "Yes."

"Well then I wanna hear about it! If she says something bad about me, I swear..."

"Aaaand that's why you probably shouldn't listen to it." Navel said. Everyone else seemed to get the drift and agreed. An angry Maria is a friggin' scary Maria.

There was a bit more meaningless chit-chat, but everyone eventually moved on to their respective duties. Navel and CR-S01 were the only ones left in the hallway. Navel had just turned to follow Naomi, who was a ways in front of him.

"What do you think of her?" CR-S01 suddenly said. Navel stopped. It was very sudden and blunt, just like CR-S01 always seemed to be.

"You mean... Aira?" Navel asked hesitantly.

"Yes." CR-S01 said. "You've looked embarrassed and troubled ever since you met up with us here. Your face turns a little red whenever her name is mentioned."

Navel couldn't believe he had been paying attention. However, it seemed that if anyone was to notice body language, it was CR-S01. He seemed to be the master of it, along with Gabriel Cunningham.

"Well..." Navel's voice trailed off. He didn't really want to answer honestly. CR-S01's head lowered just a little, his grim, red eyes burning holes into Navel's face.

"Did she say something about you?"

"... Y-yes..." Navel said quietly.

"What did she say?"

"Why are you prying into this?" Navel asked and half-accused. It didn't seem to bother CR-S01, though.

"I'm... curious." He said awkwardly. "I'm taking a... little survey, you could say."

Navel raised an eyebrow. "On what?"

"There seems to be mixed opinions around the hospital on that particular patient, and it has caught my interest."

"Mixed opinions? What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you noticed?" CR-S01 raised his head. "Dr. Kimishima never calls her by name."

Navel paused and looked away for a moment. It was true. Even after they knew her name, Naomi had always called her 'The little girl' or something similar. Navel couldn't imagine Naomi having ill-will towards a patient - it seemed impossible.

"Well... there must be an explanation for that." Navel said. CR-S01 nodded in agreement, but said nothing.

"Little Guy!" A stern voice suddenly called from down the hall. Navel looked over and saw Naomi looking at him in the distance. He doubted that she could hear their conversation from all the way over there. "Come over here, we have some cases to finish up." She called.

"Alright, I'm coming Dr. Kimishima!" Navel called. He glanced back at CR-S01 one last time before jogging over to catch up to Naomi. Normally, he would've sprinted to catch up with Dr. Kimishima, but his legs felt heavy.

He knew he had a lot on his mind.


End file.
